Pekka Saarinen, conqueror of Asia
Pekka Saarinen, conqueror of Asia
Finland's Pekka Saarinen has shown his true potential during this season in Asian Formula Renault series. The young driver took outstanding victories from both series he participated.
At IFC's last but one race weekend in Beijing's Golden Port Circuit the tests started at Friday. Like all the previous races Pekka was the man to beat during the tests. The track was really challenging for the drivers due the dust and bombyness and there were several yellow flags through out the day.
At qualifications Pekka drove to his sixth pole position at this season with over a second gap to the Red Bull driver Jim Ka To. The third place went to Kumho team's rookie-driver Geoffrey Kwong.
At sprint race's flying start Pekka took the lead and start to pull out from others. There were several accidents during the race and the group drove 9 laps out of 18 behind the Safety Car. Pekka was able to keep Ka To behind him and controlled the race with 2 secs pace to others.
Sunday morning was a true katastrof for Red Bull team. The team lost both their cars and the was forced to retire from the long race. Pekka did start from the pole and he took an easy start to the lead cause the second place was empty due the Red Bull's problems. He controlled the race and drove to quite easy victory at very demanding conditions.
”The track was really hard for the drivers and for the cars. After the first half there were more and more drivers beside the track. I didn't have any kind of problems and I managed to controll my gap to the following drivers.” Pekka commented.
Pekka did ensure his Championship with this victory. Now his lead is stunning 63 points when there is only one race to go and 30 points offered from the victory.
AFR Championship
After his succesfull weekend in IFC Pekka fight from AFR series championship points at Beijing. The track was an street circuit which was built up to industrial area. The organisation did have serious problems with the safety regulations and the whole meeting was cancelled. This meant that Pekka, who was leading the cahmpionship with 15 points before last weekend, was crowned to Asian Formula Renault Champion.
”When I arrived from the airport to the paddaock I was told that the timetable was 2 hours late due the construction works. At Friday we was supposed to drive 2 official practice sessions but we managed to drive only one. There was one hairpin corner which was too tight and we couldn't drove through it without little drifting. The A1 cars did have the same problem and the organisation decided to move the corner to the junction 200 meters earlier.” told Pekka.
After the modifications Formula Renaults did drove their second practice. Pekka was 0,5 seconds faster than second fastest Jazemman. Some drivers decided after the session that they wont participate to the race due the safety problems.
”There were some major problems with fences and exit points. So picket fences were at very dangerous positions at the exits of the corners and could have caused serious accidents.” said Pekka.
So Pekka did conquerer both Championships he did participate this year and continued his championship row with two more titles. Now he do have German, Asian and International Formula Championship titles t his belt.
12.11.2006
